This thread is aimed mostly at Airstream motorhome folks (all models). What I'd like to do here is relay the information that we were given, so that forum users can confirm or deny it based on their knowledge, or add any other info that they may have obtained independently.
According to what we were told yesterday, Nova Scotia (NS) propane suppliers are facing an economic sustainability barrier where the servicing of RVs is concerned. I'm talking about the integrated tanks that all RVs are required to have by motor vehicle codes - not the standalone tanks that tend to be found on trailers and that are commonly used for gas BBQs - there's apparently no problem with those.
The integrated tanks require a metering system that, once worn out or broken, reportedly costs about $15,000 to replace. For this reason, once an operator's original meter gives up the ghost, he or she typically opts to get out of the RV filling business entirely, because it's just not cost effective to get a new meter.
This was told to us by a former operator in Ingonish NS yesterday, who also told us that the operator in Cheticamp NS had similarly been compelled to discontinue their service. These were probably the two main suppliers on the world-famous Cabot Trail. The Ingonish fomer operator said that it is "almost impossible" to fill an RV with propane anywhere in NS at this time, and the situation is only getting worse as suppliers discontinue services one by one by one.
Furthermore, we had tried to get propane in the main urban area of Cape Breton prior to coming to this more northerly area, that being Sydney / CBRM. Both operators there - a large regional Irving fuel service station on George Street Sydney and the local Canadian Tire across from Walmart - had systems that were out of service where RVs were concerned. The Irving station described their outage as being due to a "broken hose" and I wondered if perhaps this were layperson-speak for "broken meter".
I sent emails to both the CBC and CTV news asking them to investigate and noting that, if this situation as described really is true - if RV owners will not be able to get propane in the province of NS in the future - that information is going to spread like wildfire on social media and user forums and it will change tourism patterns significantly. We would all benefit from having the most accurate information possible so that we can plan accordingly. A NS promotional website does publish
this list (PDF link) of local propane suppliers, but again, that list contains sources that we found to actually be out of business or at least out of service where RVs are concerned.
Comments? Additional information anyone else has discovered? TIA.
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